Fried Green Tomato Napoleon

I love homegrown tomatoes! This is the perfect time of year to start plucking those last few green tomatoes off you plants and bring them in to fry them up! They are probably not going to ripen out there in the cold.

This past weekend, we hit up Bistro 1866 in downtown Asheville because The Lobster Trap had an hour wait. We have had brunch there once before and it was pretty incredible. Saturday night, they were serving up Fried Green Tomato Napoleon. I had never heard of such a concoction but I had to give it a whirl and I’m so happy I did!

Their Fried Green Tomato Napoleon had shrimp, a creamy sauce, capers, french jambon, peppers, and goat cheese. I meant to ask for the recipe because that dish was incredible… unfortunately, I forgot and after several attempts at trying to find the restaurant’s web-site to no avail, I found myself dreaming of this delicious treat and decided I would figure it out myself.

Just a warning: my dad does not like anything “new” that he hasn’t tasted before and he fell head over heals in love with this recipe… so if you don’t want to be asked to make it over and over… make it for yourself and share with nobody else!

This serves 4 people

My Fried Green Tomato Napoleon Concoction:

The Groceries You Will Need:

1 red pepper

1 onion

1 clove of fresh garlic

butter

olive oil

1 little container of heavy cream

capers

12 cooked and peeled shrimp 

3 strips of bacon

small can of tomato sauce

4 green tomatoes

bread crumbs

all-purpose flour

1 egg

To Sauce It Up:

To get your sauce ingredients prepped: Take 3 strips of bacon and cut them up into little pieces, mince your clove of garlic, chop 1/2 of your red pepper and 1/4 of your onion up into very small pieces (smaller than pimentos) and drain your capers. Cook the bits of bacon quickly in a sauce pan but not quite all the way. Remove, drain grease and add a little bit of butter to coat the pan. Toss in your onions and peppers. Once they are almost translucent, toss in the the garlic. Throw in your shrimp and allow them to brown a little bit. Dump the bacon back in the mix and pour about half of your heavy cream into the pan and add two spoon fulls of tomato sauce and add 1/2 jar of capers. Allow this to cook and bubble while it thickens over low-medium heat and be sure to stir the sauce so that you do not burn it.

Fry ‘Em Tomatoes:

Frying tomatoes is an art form that not a lot of people will share with you. Some people like them heavly battered some don’t but I like mine somewhere in between. Slice your tomatoes very thin. Mix a cup of bread crumbs and a cup of flour in a bowl and in a separate bowl lightly whisk and egg. Salt and pepper your tomato slices and dredge them through the egg and toss them in the flour/bread crumb mixture. You’ll want to fry them in a very thin layer of EVOO that you have pre-heated in a pan. Be sure there is only enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan in a very thin layer. Fry your tomatoes until you see the sides turning brown and then flip them. Do not flip them before they start to brown. Have a plate ready with a paper towel on it and as you pull them out of the pan place them on the towel to help drain some of the oil.

Stack and Smother Them:

Putting your dish together is very simple. Stack your fried green tomatoes and drizzle sauce over the stack and around the plate for dipping. Put three shrimp on top and a little goat cheese on the side to garnish. You can also slice up the rest of your pepper for garnish.

This dish is pretty incredible. I’m going to have to make it again and take pictures. Maybe Sunday night.

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